The show opens at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle on Thursday, November 13 and continues through Sunday, December 7. Both Seattle papers ran feature articles with photographs on the cover of the Friday arts magazine and banner headlines on the front page. Joe Adcock writes for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

A sidebar to this article reprints the previously reported Boston Globe story about the economic effects of this show on Nutcracker sales. At the conclusion of the article, the "local angle" is briefly examined by Pacific Northwest Ballet Executive Director David Brown, who notes that PNB had planned for the impact of the Rockettes show by starting their Nutcracker marketing earlier in the season and by concentrating on electronic media advertising. He comments that Nutcracker sales are on track and says that there is always some form of competition for the holiday entertainment dollar.

Pssst! If there's anyone left in South Florida-land with the conviction that sleigh bells should not ring until after Thanksgiving, keep those thoughts to yourself or run the risk of being tarred and feathered as the Grinch. The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular has pulled in, and the holiday stampede is already under way.

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The show's concept dates from 1933 warmup acts for movies; the full-blown live Christmas show began in 1979 and still incorporates classic routines dating back to the original. The Rockettes' Parade of the Wooden Soldiers is a march that never grows tired, and the Living Nativity finale is presented carefully to achieve as much political correctness as possible in today's multicultural environment.

Since 1933, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular has been as much a holiday tradition in Manhattan as the tree at Rockefeller Center, roasted chestnuts and gridlock.

Those who flock to Radio City Music Hall to check out the 90-minute show, as more than 1 million people did last year, will enjoy some of the same scenes and routines offered in the original version. The Living Nativity, a re-creation of the Christmas miracle featuring live animals, and The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers, choreographed by Rockettes founder Russell Markert, are still as fundamental as they were 70 years ago.

And SPECTACULAR it is! I adored the whole production from top to finish, including the four sheep, one donkey, and two camels during the Nativty Scene at the end. This show illustrates what you can do when money and creativity come together. Fun costumes and clever numbers with lots of razzle-dazzle from all the performers, especially, you-know-who -- the famously precise and 400-watt Rockettes.

My only gripes are no live music, as they did have a couple of years ago when Susan Anton headlined this troupe and it would have been fun to have had a little more razzle-dazzle in the form of a tutti finale/bow number after the Nativity Scene. But I can also imagine that they felt it might be imprudent to try to top themselves, but I did want to see them all take much-deserved bows.

A fun time with some great dancing and clever and inventive choreography.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- While they both qualify as holiday entertainment, the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” and Boston Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” have little else in common. One is McDonald’s; the other, a place with a Michelin star. A comparison is inherently unfair -- each is what it is.

Still. With the Radio City production set to replace Boston’s “Nutcracker” at the Wang Theatre next year, it’s worth looking at what we’re getting.

o get the most holiday cheer for your New York minute, head to Radio City; in 90 minutes you'll hit all the hot spots from Rockefeller Center to the North Pole. Don 3-D glasses for a virtual sleigh ride, then sit tight for an onstage snowstorm, a growing Christmas tree, spunky ice-skaters, and industrious elves who take you on a tour of their gadget-filled toy factory.

How straight was the Rockettes' kick line Friday, at the opening of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular? When the end of the line wheeled around to my sightline, 17 Rockettes disappeared, blocked from view by the dancer on the end.

The power of that turning line of 18 women is elemental. The discipline required to achieve it is awe-inspiring. There is no such thing as individual style here; being a Rockette is surrendering the self to the group.

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